What are you in the business of?

Think on the following lines:
Under what circumstances did someone hire your product?
What are they really trying to achieve with your product?

Ambitio is a platform that helps personalize and streamline the admits into foreign universities for Indians seeking for same.

• Circumstances - Uncertainity, Anxiety and non clarity about processes and chances of securing an admit to foreign universities
• Trying to achieve - Structure and guidance in the process to increase the certainity of admits to preferred foreign universities

What problem is your product solving?

Identify the biggest pain points your customers face that your product addresses. Keep asking whys to get to the root cause

• Ambitio helps provide structure and personalized guidance in each stage from shortlisting to visa for getting admission into foreign universities, thereby reducing uncertainty and help increase chances of acceptance

What are the key features your product offers?

Make a list of all the features your product offers. For each feature, ask yourself, "Why does this matter to the customer?" Translate each feature into a tangible benefit that addresses a specific need or desire of your customers

• University and Course Finder - Reduce decision making effort and provide right recommendations basis the goals of customer
• Scholarship Finder - Address financial need by reducing financial burden of customers
• Profile Analysis and recommendations - Realize shortcomings and strengths for customers with actionable steps to improve upon thereby reducing their mental effort for the same
• Application tracking & library - Manage time and efforts by collating all applications at one place
• AI Writer - Reduce inertia and help craft better essays, LoRs & SoPs to stand out in application process
• GRE Prep, ToEFL, IELTS Prep - Help maximize score by providing structured approach reducing time and mental effort to figure out right resources and method
• Counselor Guidance - Provide assurance and experience and tailored recommendations and handholding across each stage of admission process

How is the user currently solving this problem?

Identify existing solutions or workarounds. It could be competitors' products, DIY solutions, or other methods

• Leverage Edu and other similar online plaforms
• Offline consultants
• DIY solution - Researching online and seeing through the whole process by themselves

ICP Table

Speak to 4-5 different users and create the ICP table. Your ICP table should include behavioural traits, psychographics, pain points & needs & goals.
More importantly, it should contain the attributes related to your product.

ICP Goals

List down the goals for your ICP. You don't necessarily have to fill all the goals. Fill the ones that are relevant to your company
(Modify this if you're working on a B2B product)

Product Goal Prioritisation

From all the goals that you have listed, prioritise the ones that you can solve right away. This will give direction to your branding strategy moving forward.
1. List Product Features and Benefits
2. Map Features to Customer Goals
3. Map these features and goals to the core value prop of your product (You'll define the core value prop in the next section. Come back to this once you're done with that section)

List your competitors

Start with listing a few of your competitors. It doesn't necessarily need to be a company, talk about how your ICP is currently solving their problem

Understand the category and type of product

Identify if your product is a category creator or is in an existing category. Next, figure out if it's a pull product or a push product. Do not forget to give reasons for each of these.

Identify the category

• Existing Category (New Entrant)

Reason for the selected category

• Offline businesses and processes for helping securing admits to foreign universities already exist for quite a few years.

Identify the type of product (Push / Pull)

• Pull Product

Reason for the selected type

• Since most of the customers that come already are aware and decided that they want to pursue higher education abroad. It's just that they don't know how to do it.
• People search for what Ambitio is solving for but might be unaware of it's existence

Jot down the JTBD of the brand

Basis the category and type, identify the JTBD for your brand. Also, briefly explain the JTBD. For eg. if the JTBD is to create awareness, talk about what is it that you want to create awareness about

JTBD of the brand

• Create a Brand Preference
• Create a strong Brand Recall

JTBD explanation

• Brand Preference and recall about the way Ambitio helps increase chances of securing admits to foreign universities by providing customized and personalized handholding across each stage of the process

Answer the core questions related to your brand

These questions will help you get everything at one place and would make it easy for you to craft your core value prop.

How does the user perceive this category?

• Users have perception that they need help from external businesses to maximize their chances since they aren't exhaustively aware or clueless about ways to secure foreing admits.

Are they aware of the category?

• Users are aware about the existence of consultancies and businesses for securing foreign university admits.

If yes, do they purchase from the category?

• They also purchase solutions from the category

What are the trigger and blockers to purchase?

• Triggers to purchase - Introductory calls and their perception, Recommendation from known ones
• Blockers to purchase - High price point, Trust Deficit about players in the category, Bad reviews and recommendations

What are the core problems your user is facing?

• Cluelessness about admission process and how to secure it

How do they solve this problem currently?

• Seeking consultancy services from existing businesses

Do they have an existing habit in place?

• Yes, users have a habit of hiring a consultant to help them guide around the process.

What is the one non-negotiable your user has? Could be money, quality, speed, time, value etc

• High service quality : Users need high service quality since their future career outlook and opportunities depend on securing these admits.

What are somethings that your users are willing to compromise on?

• High Price Points if service delivery is of unmatched quality

What are the outcomes that users want to solve for after using your product?

• Users want admission into foreign university that helps them achieve their professional and educational goals.

Craft your core value prop

For [target customer] who [needs X], our [product / service] is [category of industry] that [benefits / provides pain relievers]

• For aspiring students who want to secure an admit into foreign universities for their professional or educational developments, Ambitio is a study-abrod consultancy service that provides high quality and personalized guidance throughout the admission process starting from shortlisting universities, courses to visa and accomodation.

Define your brand wedge

If [my industry] perception is [category problem], and my user feels [user pain point], then my brand will always [user non-negotiable]

• If study-abroad consultation industry perception is trust deficient and expensive, and my user feels a lack of high quality personalized guidance, then my brand will always prioritize high quality personalized guidance across every stage of application process.

Identify the core value & personality traits

Figure out the core value and personality traits for your brand. Think about it your brand had to be a person, who would it be?

Identify core values

• Integrity
• Honest and Truthful
• Expertise

Describe personality traits

• Caring & Thoughtful - Ambitio will carefully understand the users's challenges, goals and aspirations and help provide directions to best address those
• Reliable - Users can rely on Ambitio to help them meet their challenges and achieve their best possible outcome towards their goal
• Adept - Users can be assured that Ambitio have enough expertise about the solutions they are providing
• Collaborative - Ambitio will work with users to help achieve their goals and aspirations

Define the look

Define your brand look adjectives. Make sure you define more than 2 but less than 5 such statements
I am [brand look adjective] but I am not [qualifying adjective]

I am Reliable but I am not Overly Definite

I am Caring but I am not Parent Like

I am Modern but I am not non-purposeful

Get into the specifics

Get into the specifics of the colors, typography, font style, imagery etc for your brand. Try to deconstruct it, take screenshots and talk about all of these specifics

Colors

• Current Colours
• • Shade of Red - Signifies Presitge, Energy and Excitement
  • White - Signifies Purity and Simplicity
• Better Colors could be
• • Blue - Signifying trustfulness and Adeptness
  • White

Typography

• Current Typography
• • SpaceGrotesk - For Heading and Bigger Informatiion
  • NunitoSans - For smaller and larger information

Imagery

• Current Imagery
• • Academic and Numerical Signifying Grade & CPA

Define the speak

Define your brand speak adjectives. Make sure you define more than 2 but less than 5 such statements
I am [brand speak adjective] but I am not [qualifying adjective]

• I am Informative but I am not Verbose
• I am helpful but I am not intrusive

Get into the specifics

Define the brand voice, tone and writing style

Brand Voice

• Value Giving - How Ambitio wants you to attain your goals and help in anyway it can
• Trustful - Back messages with facts and user reviews

Tone

• Academic
• Empathetic - Understand the challenges the users feel across the process

Writing style

• Simple and Understandable - Deconstruct complex processes and challenges for users via blogs and other content
• Action oriented - Not just what but precisely how can Ambitio help them in the process

Define the behave

Define your brand behave adjectives. Make sure you define more than 2 but less than 5 such statements
I am [brand behave adjective] but I am not [qualifying adjective]

• I am caring but I am not overbearing
• I am reliable but I am not god

Get into the specifics

Get into the specifics of the behave. Think of all the use cases, edge cases that your brand has faced, and write what your brand will do in those situations

Brand policies

• Cancellation Policies
• • Ambitio will be fair while providing cancellation upto a certain day for genuine reasons, but won't be flexible beyong the informed timeline

Customer experience

• Ambitio will be extremely caring and thoughtful of customers, understading their problems truly and then providing a tailored solution
• It would remain approachable but wont tolerate irresponsible or abusive attitude towards counselors and guides

Identify the possible touchpoints

Identify all the touchpoints that you brand has with a customer. GO through the resource in the section brief identify the possible briefs

1. Awareness Stage: Think about where customers first hear about your brand. Touchpoints here could include:
2. • Digital Ads: Instagram Ads
   • Content: Blogs and Instagram Reels
     
3. Consideration Stage: At this stage, they’re comparing options. Your touchpoints might include:
4. • Ambitio Website : Landing pages, product pages, and navigation
   • Social Media Profiles: LinkedIn, Instagram
   • Reviews and Testimonials: User Testimonials on site
     
5. Purchase Stage: When they decide to buy, key touchpoints include:
6. • Ambitio Website
   • Customer Service: Pre-purchase inquiries, live chats, or phone support
     
7. Onboarding and First Use: Once they have the product, think about
8. • Onboarding Emails or Tutorials: Guides for getting started
   • User Interface (UI): On-product messaging, in-app guides, and help documentation
     
9. Retention and Loyalty: For long-term engagement:
10. • Follow-up Communication: Post-purchase emails or notifications. Customer and Guidance counsellors
    • Customer Support: Student counsellors and Mentors
    • User Communities: Discord, Bootcamp groups
      
11. Advocacy: When they might refer others:
12. • Referral Programs: None

Prioritise touchpoints

From all the touchpoints that you have listed, prioritise atleast 10 touchpoints

Deconstruct brand across these touchpoints